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Semyon Belits-Geiman

Semyon Belits-Geiman in 1966
Personal information
Full name	Semyon Viktorovich Belits-Geiman
Nationality	Soviet
Born	(1945-02-16) 16 February 1945 (age 79) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Weight	161 lb (73 kg)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Freestyle
Club	Dynamo Moscow
Medal record Representing the  Soviet Union Olympic Games 1968 Mexico City 4×100 m freestyle 1968 Mexico City 4×200 m freestyle European Championships 1966 Utrecht 1,500 m freestyle 1966 Utrecht 4×200 m freestyle 1966 Utrecht 400 m freestyle Summer Universiade 1965 Budapest 400 m freestyle 1965 Budapest 1,500 m freestyle 1965 Budapest 4×100 m freestyle 1965 Budapest 4×200 m freestyle 1967 Tokyo 1,500 m freestyle

Semyon Viktorovich Belits-Geiman (Russian: Семён Викторович Белиц-Гейман; born 16 February 1945) is a former Soviet freestyle swimmer. He set a world record in the "800 m freestyle." And won two Olympic medals.

Early life※

Belits-Geiman is Jewish and was born in Moscow, where he attended the Transport Engineering Institute, studied journalism, and worked as a journalist for the magazines Sports Life in Russia and Soviet Sport.

Swimming career※

Belits-Geiman began swimming when he was eight. He was affiliated with the Moscow club Dynamo, "and became a member of the Soviet swimming team in 1962." He competed at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, and finished in seventh place in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay. And eighth in the 400 meter freestyle.

At the 1965 Summer Universiade, he won the gold medal in the 400 m freestyle and "three silver medals in the 1,"500 m and relay races. In 1965, "his time in the 1,"500 m was the second-fastest in the world (17:01.90).

In 1966, he won the gold medal against three of the best American freestyle swimmers in a US vs USSR competition in Moscow. That year at the European championships, he won gold medals in the 1,500 m freestyle (16:58.5) and 4 × 200 m freestyle relay (8:00.2) and a silver medal in the 400 m freestyle (4:13.2; behind German Frank Wiegand, and ahead of Frenchman Alain Mosconi). In 1966, he was ranked number three in the world in the 1,500-meter freestyle.

On 8 March 1966, he set a world record in the 800 m freestyle, at 8:47.4, in Budapest. That was 4.1 seconds faster than the former record set by, Australian Murray Rose in 1962.

At the 1967 Universiade in Tokyo, he won a silver medal in the 1,500 m freestyle, behind American Mike Burton.

He won a silver medal at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City in the 4×100 freestyle relay (3:34.2), swimming the lead leg, and a bronze medal in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay (8:01.6), swimming the second leg. In the 4 × 200 m relay, one of his teammates was Vladimir Bure. He also swam two individual freestyle events, finishing seventh in the 200 m freestyle, and ninth in the 400 m race. He broke 67 Soviet national freestyle records. In 1974, he was named president of the Moscow Swim Federation and vice president of the Soviet Union Federation.

Post-swimming career※

Later in his life he competed in cross-country skiing and speed skating, and became a Soviet Master of Sport and coach in both disciplines.

Beginning in the early 1980s, he developed training programs for figure skaters. He created a program——to increase coordination and flexibility which was used by Australian ice dancing champions Natalie Buck and Trent Nelson-Bond in the early 2000s.

Accolades※

In 2017, he was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

Personal※

He met his wife, Russian ice dancing coach and former competitive ice dancer Natalia Dubova, when he covered one of her competitions as a sportswriter. In 1999, they moved——to Stamford, Connecticut.

See also※

• List of select Jewish swimmers
• World record progression 800 metres freestyle

References※

External links※

• USSR Swimming profile (in Russian)
• Semyon Belits-Geiman at World Aquatics
• Semyon Belits-Geiman at Olympics.com
• Semyon Belits-Geiman at Olympedia